THE calm, yet desperate, young man walked into the rectory of St. Elizabeth Roman Catholic Church in Washington Heights seeking help.

He wanted a priest to immediately go to his aunt’s house where family members were comforting a woman who had just lost her son in Monday’s crash of American Airlines Flight 587.

In less than 40 minutes, Monsignor Gerald T. Walsh went to the West 192nd Street home of Felix Sanchez, 28, an up-and-coming financial wizard, who died in the crash.

“What do you do when you get there?” he was asked.

“Nothing. You’re just here – there’s nothing you could do,” said Walsh, who lost seven parishioners in the crash.

“A priest practices the ‘Theology of Presence.’ In the language of the street, it’s called the ‘Theology of Hanging Out,’ ” Walsh explained.

“You get more done by being there at a time like this than you do by giving an eloquent address on the pulpit.”

Yesterday, Edward Cardinal Egan, outside the glare of media coverage, quietly practiced the Theology of Presence and hung out in The Heights.

He showed up at St. Elizabeth Church on Wadsworth Avenue about 8 a.m., and told the monsignor, the regional vicar, to arrange a bilingual memorial Mass at his church at 7:30 p.m. Thursday for the plane crash victims.

The Mass would also memorialize about 50 Heights residents who died during the World Trade Center attacks – the folks who didn’t get any recognition because they were illegal immigrants.

Egan then sprinted down Wadsworth Avenue to the home of Richard Solis, a church outreach worker whose mom, sister and brother-in-law died on the flight.

The archbishop gave Solis a pearl rosary bead that had been left by the pope – and sprinted back to St. Elizabeth to officiate at the 9 a.m. Mass.

He later visited the Sanchez’s and then went to the West 189th Street home of Luis and Antonia Morales, who died along with Antonia’s sister, Altagracia, 55.

A thunderstorm of tears greeted The Post several hours after Egan’s visit.

Luz Borrero, 52, the baby of nine siblings, couldn’t stand the loss of her two sisters and brother-in-law.

Her gut-wrenching screams resonated throughout the hallway. She could barely open her eyes as she cried and had to be held up by family members.

She’s been that way since the crash, except, briefly, when Egan engaged in the Theology of Presence.

Edward Borrero described Egan’s presence like this:

“It was a good feeling when he came here because we needed a spiritual uplifting, a prayer.”